The Extent Of Cancer

Leukemia And Lymphoma

     During the past forty years, the incidence of some cancers has increased by as much as 200%.  The increasing death rate is typified by the unrelenting advance year by year in Georgia from 100.9 cases per 100,000 in 1960 to 131.0 in 1971.  There has been a corresponding increase in malignant lymphoma and leukemia of cattle in America and Europe in recent years.  Dr. Henry Lemon of the University of Nebraska Cancer Research Institute sees a link between human leukemia and cattle leukemia.  “Histologically, the blood cancer in cattle resembles the lymphsarcoma  and leukemia (in humans) to a “T.”

  Dr. Lemon notes that dairy-rich Denmark has a leukemia incidence double that of any other western European nation, and a high rate of cattle leukosis.  The Danes now have a national program to kill off all leukemic cattle.  A history of milk drinking has been a prominent feature in patients with leukemia states Dr. Lemon.  Cancer incidence throughout the world bears direct relationship in the countries having big dairy industries.

     Cattle and dairy farmers show an excess of deaths due to leukemia over a matched control group, selected from the general population.  Poultry farmers are also linked with greater frequencies of leukemia.  This finding is all the more striking since other rural residence consistently reveal that the total cancer mortality is much lower among them than among urban citizens.  It seems logical ”to relate this excess (mortality) to the known predisposition of chickens to mortality from Marek’s disease,” (fowl leukosis) says Samuel Milham, Jr., an epidemiologist at Washington State Division of Health in Olympia.  Medical World News  January 14, 1972

     Forty thousand Americans will develop leukemia and lymphoma this year, and thirty thousand of these victims will die.  Leukemia accounts for about half of all cancer deaths in children between three and fifteen, and is much higher among milk-drinking children.

FACTORS WHICH INCREASE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO CANCER

     Ammonia increases susceptibility to virus infections.  One of the waste products of protein digestion is ammonia, a substance harmful to man and animals.  Americans may be increasing their incidence of intestinal cancer by eating large amounts of milk, meat, eggs, and cheese.  Ammonia is declared capable of changing the character of ribonucleic acid, altering the rate that thymidine is used to form deoxyribonucleic acid in living cells, and of destroying cells, thus increasing cell turnover and the opportunity cells have in becoming cancerous.  All of the phenomenon are stated to occur at ammonia concentrations below those usually found in man’s intestine, which are high enough in the large intestine of non-vegetarians to cause severe changes in character and biochemistry of cells.  Postgraduate Medicine  1969

     Cancer-producing viruses lie dormant for a long time before they are activated by external factors (radiant energy, metabolic or hormonal factors, irritation, deficiencies in the immune system, chemicals in the blood, or environment, etc.).  It is felt by many investigators that when radiation causes leukemia, it is by activation of a latent leukemia virus!  There are doubtless other factors as well, such as the inevitable weakening of tissues by radiation and the presence of altered stimuli to cell-growth—ammonia as an example.

     NUTRITIONAL FACTORS

     Certain nutritional factors are intimately related to the type of cancer one develops.  Habitually drinking hot drinks increases ones chance of having cancer of the stomach, according to studies done in Japan.  In areas where stomach cancer is high, the diet often consists of a large proportion of refined starched foods such as polished rice, white bread, and mashed potatoes; and a small proportion of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Polyps and cancers of the colon are common in the areas of the world where the diet contains little fiber.  In trout, bears, and other animals, liver cancer has been associated with aflatoxin fed in the form of moldy foods.  Aspergillus flavus is the offending mold producing the aflatoxin.  Improperly stored peanuts and bread are often contaminated.

     There is a correlation in man between meat consumption (or animal protein which would also include dairy products and eggs) and the incidence of cancer of the colon.  There is a similar correlation with animal protein and the incidence of cancer of the breast.  Two hundred twenty cancer patients, when compared with the same number of controls, turned out to have much less fondness than the controls for raw vegetables, including lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, coleslaw, and red cabbage.  Raw vegetables contain generous amounts of vitamin C and E, both antioxidents acting in the body to reduce aging factors.  Those who do not take generous quantities of vegetables could be expected to age at an accelerated rate and have conditions set in their cells that would encourage the development of cancer. 

     A high birth weight is associated with increased risk of leukemia mortality in children.  For seven decades we have known that babies weighing over eight pounds at birth were more susceptible to diabetes (along with their mothers) than were babies weighing less than eight pounds.  Since conditions which lead to diabetes also tend to lead to cancer, and since environmental factors are strongly associated with the development of both diabetes and cancer, a fruitful area to probe in prevention of cancer is the lifestyle that leads to diabetes.

  OVEREATING AS A FACTOR

     Abnormally high amounts of nutrients have been found to accumulate in the cells of cancerous tissue.  Cells may “learn” to gorge themselves with nutrients because of the custom of the person to overeat.  “Why should a man need tons of meat and other high protein foods during his lifetime when the food only breaks down into a complex of chemicals anyway before it can be used by his body?...”  Large portions of unchanged proteins are taken up directly by human cells growing in culture.  These foreign proteins may introduce toxic by-products into the cells.  Cell cultures grow at a very different rate, depending on whether they are fed whole protein or the component amino acids.  With simple amino acids the cells divide only once; with the whole proteins they divide up to three times.  Using more simple proteins and amino acids may exert a protective effect against excessive cell growth that might lead to cancer.  Whole blood serum used as a nutrient for cells in culture brings an even greater growth—four divisions.  Science news April 23, 1966.   Some factor in unchanged proteins and whole serum stimulates cell division, a feature seen also in cancerous tissues.

     At the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine a study involved sixteen mice fed hard-boiled eggs and sixteen controls given regular laboratory chow.  Both groups were of a cancer-prone strain.  Of the controls, only two developed cancer.  Of the egg-fed mice, twelve developed cancer.  Studies show repeatedly that animal protein feeding is associated with cancer production in animals.

     Leukemia in chickens accounts for annual losses to the United States poultry industry estimated in hundreds of millions of dollars.  The virus is passed from mother to chick through the egg, or from one chick to another through saliva and droppings.  Some infected chickens may transmit the disease without themselves developing it.  This is called latent disease and has important implications in studies of human leukemia and lymphomas.  Dr. Olive Davis of Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine developed cancer in her own lymphatic system after twenty years of working with the virus causing Marek’s disease.  Tumor cells from her own tumors were identical to the chicken tumor cells.  Time, April 3, 1964

     Susceptibility to the development of leukosis depends on the genetic constitution, the age of exposure, horizontal infection, and the level of antibodies passed on to the chick via the egg.  The earlier in life the exposure to the leukosis virus, the more likely the disease will develop.  Sanitation of the living quarters and isolation of each hatch group can assist in control of the egg-borne and horizontal infections.  All currently available strains of chickens are infected with the leukosis viral complex.  Report of the Regional Poultry Research Laboratory.  1949  (Marek’s disease) “and all chicken houses are contaminated with it...The houses serve as reservoirs for infections of future flocks,” said Dr. Ben Burmester, the developer of a vaccine against Marek’s Disease.  The chickens can still be infected by Marek’s virus, but will not produce tumor growth.  The virus is a member of the herpes group of DNA viruses.

     “We have discovered that the causative agent of lymphomatosis may be transmitted through eggs, coming from carrier hens which are healthy and in laying condition and which have not shown clinical or gross manifestations of the disease.”

     In a private communication in August, 1972 Dr. Alexander Jackson, a researcher for about twenty years on chickens, eggs, and Rous chicken sarcoma, stated that it is likely that chickens transmit human cancer, since the Rous chicken sarcoma virus has been shown to affect other animals including primates.  He stated that in their home, at that time they boiled eggs for ten minutes, and baked chickens a long time rather than frying them.  He believed that a sort of spore form of the cancer organism resisted ordinary cooking.

     Ordinary cooking of eggs, including boiling, frying, coddling and baking, often fails to kill bacteria such as Salmonella in eggs.  Many viruses are much more resistant to heat killing and drying.

        LIFESTYLE FACTORS

     There is an overwhelming likelihood that the lifestyle, water drinking habits, diet, previous diseases and operations, and a number of other factors unite to increase the susceptibility to cancer viruses.  Considerable evidence is mounting that development of malignancies depends on the quantitative dose of virus administered (the more eggs eaten the more virus obtained.)

     A low protein diet has been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of children with leukemia and as has been stated previously, to prevent cancer development in animals.  Most meats, both fresh and preserved, are in the major class of foods associated with a high bowel cancer risk.

     The removal of the tonsils takes away a protective barrier against Hodgkin’s disease.  Deficiencies in the immune system have been implicated in the occurrence of malignancies.  If the body is forced to produce large numbers of monocytes (a type of white blood cell) over long periods of time as in chronic infections, a blood cancer may eventually result.  Dehydration of cell may trigger cancer.  As one gets older, body cells tend to become more dehydrated.  This feature of aging is undoubtedly a factor in causing some cancers.  Exercise can slow the growth of tumors.  These various facts serve to emphasize the desirability of following all known health laws, not just eliminating certain foods from the dietary.

     There are many substances which are known to suppress various aspects of the cancer producing process in the body.  For example, vitamin C as it occurs naturally inhibits the formation of nitrosamine from nitrites and amines.  Flavonoids inhibit various procarcinogens, and vitamin E and sulfhydryl compounds inactivate many derived substances from procarcinogens and block certain steps in cancer production, as do vitamin A and its related retinoic acid derivatives.

1. Never smoke cigarettes

2. Take regular physical

 

exercise

3  ....drink no alcohol

4. Sleep 7 to 8 hours daily

5. Maintain a proper weight

6. Eat breakfast

7. Do not eat between meals

     Those who persistently practice these habits where found in their study to be much less likely to die of cancer than those who practice none or only two or three.

Dr. Agatha & Calvin Thrash